Copyright tribuneonlineng
There is ONE reason why we pursue power. In life, we pursue only what we believe we lack. Nobody makes an unrelenting quest for what he believes he already has. Even after we attain a level, we want more. A higher position. Another degree. Another certification. Another million. Another title. More control. And the quest goes on, ad infinitum. When I was in Elementary (Primary school in Nigeria, I used to trek to and from school, sometimes barefooted. Returning from school in the scorching sun, sometimes in temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius, with no shoes on a tarred road was the worst thing that could happen to anyone. But we were used to it because we had the chance to walk and talk with friends whose parents also didn’t afford them the luxury of coming to pick them up from school. One of the ways by which we shifted attention from the torture on our soles was by looking ahead and seeing the surface of the road reflecting the rays of the sun, resulting in a glassy river-like surface. As we got closer to it, it seemed to move further away from us. Sometimes, we would challenge ourselves to a race to see who could catch up with it. But we were not doing that for nothing. I cannot tell how the myth started, but we were made to believe that if we could catch up with that reflection would find gold buried under the soil at that spot. The gold find would be more than enough to financially settle more than ten generations of our families. Of course, we never caught up with it, but we repeated the routine every day in the hope that one day, fortune would smile on us, and we could beat generational poverty. I later learnt that this refraction of light from the sky by heated air was called a mirage! One thing we found though; as we ran towards the mirage, our attention shifted from our current pain and we also got home faster. Our relentless power pursuit is like chasing a mirage. The quest for more in any area of our lives is largely driven by the imposter syndrome, a sense of insufficiency and insecurity that feels an inner void that constantly questions current achievement. Even after we attain a certain level of whatever we set out to achieve, there is the consciousness of an inner VOID that keeps asking, after every achievement, “Is this all there is to it? After this, what next?” When we cannot get an answer, the void becomes more intense and the desire to fill it makes the pursuit more relentless as we struggle in a never-ending vortex of illusion that keeps creating more things for us to do and more reasons not to stop. We call that by different names viz: aspiration, ambition, drive, vision, passion, doggedness, etc. This is what happens when power itself becomes the pursuit rather than the enabler of the REAL PURSUIT. It is like being so distracted by the means of transportation that we forget the destination. So, why is it wrong to pursue power for power’s sake? For power to be meaningful, it must serve a PURPOSE bigger than the ego of the one who has it. If you seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge and for boasting, it will never produce transformation and will simply puff you up! Merely knowing is information. Learning is application. Education without application is no better than ignorance. If you have economic power that is of no benefit to anyone around you, the frustration of wealth will kill you. Simply put, power puts you on a pedestal to make some things happen in your environment that honour God and serve people. Every invention that we see is a reflection of someone’s deployment of knowledge to make life easier for others. When that happens significantly, the inventor is also significantly rewarded with economic power. Power, effectively deployed, always has a multiplier effect. Empowering others will increase, not diminish your own power! A few hours before writing this, I watched a video of a young man who lives in the USA talking about how the current Nigerian Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, helped him when he was a nobody and needed sponsorship for admission in the US. Akpabio was then a governor and they met on a commercial flight. He also spoke about how Akpabio helped some other people that he introduced to him. That was several years ago, and he attributes his current economic transformation to that kind gesture. That is what true power is about. When Jesus had it, “He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” Whatever you don’t want to be remembered for out of power, don’t do it when you have power. Memories don’t live forever on the pages of history but in the hearts of men. Power in any realm – political, economic, social or spiritual – attracts a mystique that, in lonely moments, makes the holder of power question his own personality. When the lights are out, those whose lives influence others seek solace in something deeper than the accolades. When they cannot find it, the unrealistic expectations of the power platform simply dovetail in loneliness, frustration and depression. It’s the reason politicians hardly retire because they never want to imagine themselves without being in power, or at the very least having access to power. It is the reason why many wealthy people never seem to have enough. It is why actors and musicians move from one set or stage to another until exhaustion kills or wears them out. It’s the reason why social media influencers want to post every hour, even when they have nothing meaningful to say. The greater the void, the more aggressively relentless the pursuit for more power, even if diabolical means have to be engaged. True power derives from IDENTITY. Power, in the real sense of it, serves the PURPOSE (essence) of that identity. Power abuse happens when you attain power without defining who you are and why you desire the power you seek. That’s when you suddenly find that what you struggled so hard to get isn’t what you really wanted. But the spotlight is already on you, and your audience awaits the next performance. So, you fill the yawning void with pleasure, alcohol and sometimes drugs. Afterall, the “show” must go on… Wherever identity and purpose find alignment in an individual’s consciousness, power is a DEPLOYMENT, not an ACHIEVEMENT. Power comes pre-packaged in the human combo. It is intrinsic before it is deployed. That innate power simply requires DISCOVERY, DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT. Identity is the compass, the GPS of true power. Purpose is its driver. Power doesn’t reveal a different you or replace your old self. It simply amplifies the YOU that a lack of it hid from the rest of us… continued Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
