By Olalekan Jubril
“If it is true that the basic quest of man is freedom, the question we must ask is: Is it freedom from or freedom for”, Rabbi Joseph H.
Freedom is one fundamental thing that every animal seeks – including the higher animals, humans. Man is that animal with the highest sense of self-entitlement, always craving to be responsible to himself alone and not willing to answer others either deliberately or through coercion. Man, of course, is born free. As such, regardless of the binding circumstances, freedom is that one thing humans will always pursue; be it financial freedom, emotional freedom, mental freedom, etc. It is an endless quest – an illusive gift of curse that had been showered upon the human race from time immemorial.
Hence, when we say freedom, we mean a complete, absolute and unconstrained operation of an individual or a group of people to do whatever, wherever, whenever, and however. Freedom is kind of similar to power: for there is power in freedom and there is freedom in power. And as it’s popularly said, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, the same goes for freedom; ‘freedom corrupts and absolute freedom corrupts absolutely’.
The time and age we live in has exposed us to an ample number of things: ideas, concepts, technologies, etc. that our progenitors were bereft of. As such, our generation do more; we crave more, we pursue more, we want more – we literally double or triple our predecessors in terms of our desires and infernal cravings. And one of these cravings is the thirst for freedom, and not just freedom, but absolute freedom.
Freedom is never to be taken nakedly – it has a guardian for a clothing. There is a guardian that shells every freedom and that guardian is discipline. A freedom without discipline is not freedom but an exposure, and when this becomes the case abuse is inevitable. And when freedom is abused, regret is immanent. It is rather unfortunate and regrettable that many students of the University of Ibadan are unaware of this reality and this has resulted into misplacement of priority and uncultured exuberance.
We all want freedom in one way or the other, but there are several fundamental questions you should ask yourself before taking the quantum leap of freedom if you do not want to end up making destiny-thwarting mistakes. Some of the questions are: What do I want to be free from? Am I ready to be free? What would I do with my freedom? Do I want to be free because I feel I am ready or because I am ready? What do I want to be free for? for pleasure or purpose? Am I disciplined enough to handle either of these alone?
An honest and a well thought-through answer to these questions will go a long way in influencing us on making right choices and decisions. Perhaps you should even begin to ask yourself these questions now! Yes, Now! These questions help you make a clear distinction as to whether what we want you want is freedom or a mere exposure.
Once, there was a fish named Zara. It was an adorable, ebullient, curious and the most outstanding of its kind. Soon, it developed a higher sense of relevance and began to feel that it should not dwell in the water, it said he deserved to be in the sky like the birds (the birds are the equivalence of students living large on campus, while Zara is tantamount to those from humble homes but have suddenly decide to go wild because of freedom, they also want to feel among – to be amongst the birds), to soar alongside the Eagle considering his level of intelligence. He just so wanted freedom at all cost. Long-story-short, Zara successfully built itself a beautiful artificial pair of wings, and without consulting his parents, siblings or relatives, he decided to explore the world above him. And there comes the deal day, fully set with his adorable set of wings, Zara soared above the waters. Oh yeeaah, it exclaimed…it is beautiful out here, this is where I belong! Zara bellowed. But unfortunately for Zara, it was not aware of the facts that fishes can not survive in the air nor on the land for too long a time.
Soon, Zara began to run out of oxygen. It had flown so high. But by the time it began to descend, to run back into the water, Zara was unfortunately sighted by an eagle, who marveled at the beauty of Zara. “what a meal I will have today”, the eagle whispered to itself. And within a twinkle of an eye, the eagle swiftly grabbed Zara by the wings and tore him up with its claws.
Most of us act like Zara; we are not disciplined enough to handle our freedom but yet we pursue it still. We want to get involved in so many things because our friend are involved. We tend to turn deaf ears to all contrary opinions in the name of ‘it is my life and I am free to do whatsoever pleases me’; we want to explore like Zara. And in the bid to exercise this freedom we are oftentimes impetuous, drastic and overly enthusiastic. We see the University as a new terrain and we want to maximize, optimize and utilize its opportunities as best as we could. It is however a sad case that only a few make positive maximization of these opportunities our freedom present to us. The few others are like Zara, they are freedom-drunken, obsessed to fly in the winds, but oftentimes ignorant of the consequences of their choices.
Freedom is expensive and sacred, it comes with a lot of responsibilities, hence, it ought to be handled with care. Let your reason guide you in your choices rather than your instinct. Remember, the same eagle that Zara wanted to fly with brought Zara’s promising life to an abrupt end. Don’t be like Zara. Be free, but don’t be free.
