Nigeria is among the countries in the world where the color green plays a very important role. From the simple landscape to the exotic and wasted resources of the great nation, the color green is not lacking. The Nigerian flag is a rectangular stripe that is divided into three equal parts. The main colors are in green. This represents the land and agricultural potential of the county, while the color white represents peace and unity.
The Shield of Nigeria is presented on another platform that dignifies the color green. The two large horses rest on a base known as “Cactus spectabilis”, a wildflower that grows in many parts of the county. Green is a color that represents life. It is a color of a growing grass, or the leaves of most plants. The choice of green color for Nigeria is not a mistake. When you take a good look at the nation itself, there is a clear indication that God had greatness in mind by allowing a nation like Nigeria to exist. Although the country had experienced so many problems, God is interested in the affairs of Nigeria.
Going green means living with eternity in view in whatever you do. This is exactly what our Founding Fathers did. They lived their lives so well that they could divide everything by “FOREVER”; the world could not confuse or distract them. In fact, they had only one eye on life that knows no end: they were looking for a city that had foundations, whose Architect and Maker is God. They were on their way to heaven, to be home with the Savior who bought them with the price of his blood. In fact, they joined the word “GREEN” with “ETERNITY” – the eternal past and the endless future – forever backwards and forever forwards. They understood that the glory of heaven is eternal and decided to create a glorious country for us.
His philosophy and lifestyle should challenge us to see beyond the horizon, beyond the present time into eternity; weigh things carefully and ask penetrating questions to unmask the options and appearances that abound in a world turned upside down. Before doing things today, do we ask ourselves if those things are worthwhile or have eternal values? The things we do today have a way of affecting our eternal destinies. Nigeria is a country built on godly principles. Principles that are not suggesting the abandonment of social responsibility or acts of kindness as we see them today. Every little act of kindness is infinitely precious in the eyes of God, because He will reward, with eternal benefits, the giving of a glass of water to one of His own, and He will bless whoever does some good deed to the least of His own. brothers of religion! The old tired cliché is that someone could be so heavenly minded that they would be of no earthly use. Earthly-minded people are those who are of no earthly use to the kingdom of God.
In order to become truly green and remain what we are made to be, we must try to find the real value of our existence as a people in one great nation under one God. To find the real value of any object, search, relationship, possession, investment or anything else, we must divide it by “FOREVER”. If you want to accurately estimate an apparent “tragedy”, weigh it on the scales of eternity. I read something like that somewhere where it is stated that No tragedy is so great or unbearable if it has not adversely affected the eternal welfare of its object. Do you know that the many pleasures and treasures that we seek today and that seem attractive, lose their value the moment we do a simple arithmetic with them? Why then do we believe in green but on canvas with rusty iron? Being green at 50 requires simple arithmetic: divide it by eternity and endless forever! Also discover that the money that has diverted so many of us may seem like the most until you weigh it in the scales of eternity. Also, sex and hedonism can dazzle, but only to the point of dividing them forever.
The principle of life demands that we take a look back at our individual lives to see if we are truly green as we are led to believe. We could have been fooled by an accident of nature. Or does going green require the ugly occurrences taking place on earth today? Where do the kidnappings, armed robberies, bombings, illegal detentions, extrajudicial executions, slander and ethnic prejudice come from? Surely, these are not part of our green nature! These are distractions carefully designed to rob us of our portion in the land of our inheritance. But in the midst of all this, it is a pleasure to know that our land is still virgin. The leaves are still green and there is life everywhere in the nation. Nigerians should not give up; Going green is a task that needs to be done. Let’s put all hands to work to build this emerging world power! God wants Nigeria to move from a life of scarcity and even sufficiency to a life of superabundance. To accomplish this, God quickly points each and every one of us to his unchanging word: the Bible. In the Bible, we understand the amazing entity and its benefits to us. The GREEN color is one of the best things that God gave to man in creation. With color doing wonders in Nigerian nature today, God has placed something special in our hearts and hands. And so our future depends on our ability to recognize and use what we have.
This knowledge of a clean and GREEN nation is the answer that Nigeria has for its many needs in life. It is the ticket out of poverty, the passport to prosperity. Since the color green does not signify acquisition but rather creativity, your true prosperity will come if you are not bent on acquiring wealth instead of creating wealth. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence, my prayer for Nigeria and Nigerians is that they learn today how to tap into God’s knowledge and unleash God’s creativity. To be truly great, Nigeria and indeed Nigerians need to look GREEN as represented by the color of the country, always ready at all times to divide everything they do into “FOREVER” to determine its true worth or value. These are the hidden treasures that we have not realized that we carry within us. Let’s make time to preserve and maximize this: Going GREEN with NIGERIA @ 50 is only possible when we look beyond time (the present) into eternity!
