DEFEATING THE OLD THOUGHTS FOR LIM DEVELOPMENT

                               Introduction

We should give credit to our forefathers who did all they could to secure a better environment for us. But we should be mindful of those teaching that has the tendency of destabilizing our progress and development and above all our unity. This article is centered on Lim community, in Tafawa Balewa Bauchi Nigeria. It is tagged “Defeating the old thoughts for Lim development” is a clear declaration that until we are united despite our differences, Lim will continue to suffer setbacks.

Hatred, selfish desire, idleness and unpatriotic must be dealt with. Old thoughts are actually those ancient beliefs that are no longer relevant to nowadays society which are capable of affecting developmental programs negatively and we must do away with it if we want good development. This article is divided in to three parts. Part one is about the inability of Lim community to begin observing Limday. 

Part two is about the inability of Lim branches to unite all over Nigeria to form national body. Part three is about recommendation and conclusion. As you devote your time to go through this article, you will discover old thoughts that need to be dealt with for Lim development.

     PART-ONE

The inability of Lim community to begin observing Limday is a clear sign of disunity, unpatriotic, selfish, hatred and believing in old thoughts.

The question that who am I to start talking about LIMDAY because I am too small to discuss the issue is a clear sign of lack of appraisal, review, evaluation and assessment of the lingering issue so called “old thoughts”. Disunity, unpatriotic, selfish and hatred are the fruits of old thoughts. My brother and sister, you are not too small to discuss anything to create awareness in our dear community.

DISUNITY: This word (disunity) can destroy generations to come if care is not taken. That’s why we are finding it very difficult now to call for unity, all because of believing in the ‘old thoughts’. For how long shall we continue with this destructive strategy?

UNPATRIOTIC: Lacking the zeal to be loyal to our community is eating the heart of Lim development. And unpatriotic can make our youths to be unproductive to our community and society at large. Unpatriotic is possible where believing in ‘old thoughts’ surfaces or appears. For how long shall we continue with this destructive strategy?

SELFISH OR SLEF-CENTRED: Looking curly but destructive. ‘Eat it and die alone’ is the most sophisticated weapon of self-destruction. “He is not my son or one of our family members as such, he should face his difficulties and challenges and I cannot offer him help”. “Only one of mine will benefit”. The aforementioned quotations are clear representatives of selfishness or self-interest as a result of believing in ‘old thoughts’.

HATRED: This is the most dangerous and evil strategy to walk with, its own system of destructions destroy both the development and the person that brought the development. This is killing the present and the future and at the same time, making our community and its environs unfavourable to our upcoming generations. This might be so because of one ‘unexplained, unverified and unidentified lingering issue existing from the time immemorial’. Hatred is of course, one of the ‘old thoughts’ hindering Lim development.

LIMDAY: Who are you to give the history of Lim? Who gave the name Lim? What is Lim as being called today? Who is big in Lim? Which year the name ‘LIM’ was first called and who was the person that first called it Lim? Can all the above questions be answered here and now without any discrepancy?

If yes and you are reading this article, please I need your contact and I am very anxious to see you physically.

If no and you are reading this article , why not we leave the ‘old thoughts’ alone and face our civilized world and subsequently develop Lim in general?

LIMDAY is not a big deal, is just the matter of understanding and leaving the ‘old thoughts’ away from us to create a better platform or environment for our community development. Lim environs are celebrating their own day, not because they are older than us but because they have destroyed this lingering issue (old thoughts) existing from the time immemorial and set good platform for themselves and their upcoming generations to come.

OLD THOUGHTS: Ancient beliefs as it is sometimes called, is quite destructive. It destroys the future and ridiculed the upcoming generations if care is not taken. This article highlights some features of ‘old thoughts’ that has been lingering from generation to another making it difficult for Lim development. These are:

1.     Lim Bisa and Lim Kasa saga: Here, the issue of who is older than the other has since passed from generation to another and now is surfacing on the children of both parties. This is the question of, to whom Lim is belonged? The fact is that, this issue did not start now, it started long time ago by some selfish Individuals belonging to both parties. Before now, Lim bisa and Lim kasa coexisted from the time immemorial but up to now they refused to accept that they are one. . Now is becoming too hard to reconcile. This is because the message (described as old thoughts) has been passed to them by their trusted parents. Civilization is yet to let people know the appropriate steps to take, not because we don’t have educated people to enlighten us but because they are unpatriotic, selfish, greedy, and pessimists. They do not believe in unity. When the war is set by the two giants (Lim bisa and Lim kasa), other minorities find their way to get involved by supporting one or the other. It has fully come to surfaced or appeared that Lim Tsakani, and Lim tsohor fada and any person residing in this locations are likely to support Lim kasa. While Lim sabon gari, Lim dadin kowa and now Lim saminaka are likely to support Lim bisa. Until such ‘old thoughts’ are defeated, Lim development will continue to suffer setbacks.

2.     Boundary saga: Here also, the two giants (Lim bisa and Lim kasa) do show lackadaisical attitude forgetting that they are all human. The issue of maintaining territory is not a thing of today, it has been there since from the time immemorial. Lim people are all brothers and sisters cohabiting together, what is needed in the community is developmental programs not hatred and lackadaisical behaviour. This is a hamlet that houses all the people of Lim, speaking the same dialect or language, go to church together, one tribe, the same lifestyle and so on, but still accepting ourselves to be one is a thorn in our flesh. Until we defeat the ‘old thoughts’ in us, creating developmental programs will continue to suffer setbacks.

3.     Idleness: Joblessness and laziness contributed also in finding difficulties to set community development programs. Here, lack of money, acquisitions skills, political apathy or lack of concern in political activities full this area. Getting involved in one or two things can alleviate laziness. In one of my open letter I wrote to all Lim branches on 26 and signed on 27 October, 2020; point number 5 and I quote “this reform will encourage all members to have sense of belonging”. Of course people will no longer be idle and they can comfortably earn good income. Youths are not ready to suffer for good income, they don’t bother going to school and there is no suitable environment for learning skills or handwork. Until we defeat idleness among us, if not Lim development will keep staying as just a dream without actualization.

4.     Witchcraft activities and hate killing of youths: This is somehow spiritual, but do manifest in real life. Accusations and counter-accusations full this area. Come to think of those that had to resort to fetish doctors to reveal the truth. However, this is unverifiable because all the activities are in spirit realm. But some perpetrators do claimed responsibility after family meetings and some drastic measures put in place like ‘taking of traditional medicines or concoctions’ in an attempt to single out the perpetrators of the evil acts. The concoction is popularly referred to as Wungh Lanci (medicine of witches). Also, in the open letter I wrote to all Lim branches on 26 and signed on 27 October, 2020; point number 4, it read thus “We are not going to succumb or surrender to any body found practicing witchcraft activities that could lead to the death of any person”, this I thought will alert our youths to support this movement and serve as the beginning to throw away this evil practices and face reality for good development of Lim, but no attention was paid and is reaching to two years now. And this type of killing may be as a result of hatred, or the person is doing well both financially and materially per se, instead of appreciating him, you  will find out that the people he/she trusted are the ones planning against his success. This is clearly devilish and it must be defeated. Here, youths and elders are dying because there seems to be no solution. I repeat “Old thoughts must be defeated for Lim development”. If not, our community will continue to suffer setbacks in the hands of the people against the community and its people.

5.     Embracing the old thoughts by the youths of nowadays: The cordial relationship that exists between children and their parents can make it easy for every child to trust his/her parents and stylishly accept some wrong historical thoughts about their neighbours and friends. What if the message passed to the children was a wrong message? The children might grow with this hatred for generations to come. Some of the bragging rights you see in our youths of our community were set forth by their grandparents, they grew with it and now is affecting them and the entire community. Almost all problems we are facing today in our dear community has historical connection. Therefore, those bad and old thoughts must be defeated for Lim development.

 

  PART-TWO

The inability of Lim branches to unite all over Nigeria to form national body is another clear sign of instability and lack of productive effort

After understanding how to do away with ‘old thoughts’, is now a high time for youth’s cooperation to end it entirely so that it will give room for Lim development. But there are a lot of commitments that youths outside Lim, that is, those living in various cities in Nigeria need to offer. Many Lim indigenes living in various cities in Nigeria do conduct monthly meeting to cater for themselves and the parent community (Lim). Starting with the members, some members don’t care about going for meeting. Lack of seriousness is rampant or widespread, they don’t know that going for meeting alone can sometimes help someone come out of trouble. Do you know that lack of attending meeting has make some members enemies of themselves? Some blame it on the officials while others on the members themselves. There are many things that can contribute to the inability of Lim branches to unite and articulate single developmental agenda, few of them are:

1.     Lack of inter-officials collaboration: The hands of officials between branches are not on deck for collaboration or partnership and this can make it very difficult to set a single project for the community annually because all branches are astray. This is a clear sign of instability between branches. Inter-officials collaboration can speed up any project set for accomplishment within short period of time. The clear example of lack of collaboration between branches can be seen in the building of the purported ‘Lim Hall’ located just before the primary school Lim Bisa. My take on that issue is that, the committee setup for that project should have done better by consulting all branches to key in before the project started. One big issue that I see is causing instability between officials of the branches is ‘they tend to join their personal issue with the policies and programs of the association which can be apparently seen in the confrontation between chairman of Abuja branch and chairman of port Harcourt branch in 2021.

2.     Failure to setup national body or officials: This body if successfully established, it may perform oversight function on any project ongoing or to begin. The body may also come up with some policies to help in managing project and help in solving the problem of roaming members that can affect the performance of the association. But failure to establish national committee or official or body, will not only destabilize or weaken Lim developmental programs but also any attempt to go back on project will be unproductive.

3.     Internal crisis within group: This is enough to put any branch in trouble. Crisis within group can arise as a result of low performance by the officials, lack of annual financial report and pursuing personal interest rather than the interest of the association. Internal crisis can also emerge as a result of nonparticipation of members for the monthly meeting.

4.     The custody of the association fund: No group can thrive without proper management of the association fund and lack of periodic financial report can jeopardise members trust on the officials and the association. Here, opening an account for the association is crucial because it will put confidence on the members that their money is secured.

5.     Part-Time members: These are members or persons that do travel or live in one place and later migrate to another location due to many reasons. Some because of their work, and family issues. These type of people live in an area within a short period of time. If a member relocate from Ibadan to Abuja with debts he will now register afresh in Abuja, this can make inconsistency in the payment of the debt owed.

6.     Transfer of document: Upon the successful establishment of the national body, policies should be setup in such that any member that relocate to another city, his former association will be contacted and be briefed that one of her members is with us and he or she will be attending meeting with us. At this juncture, his document containing his details and current membership status (cleared or outstanding fee) will be transferred to the new association. This measure should be implemented in all branches including Lim meeting in the village. This will stylishly stop the runaway members with high outstanding fees to pay. Also, a certain universal registration fee should be set for newly registration of members.

 

PART-THREE

                              Recommendations and Conclusion

Recommendations

1.     The best way to manage membership consistency is to make it universal a certain registration fee for all new members and to ensure that wherever you find yourself you must first clear your debts owed. Example, someone who is living in Abuja decided to move to Lagos for greener pasture if he has not registered with the association in Abuja, then he has to register with same registration fee in Lagos. For someone who had already registered, he need not to be registered again but to continue paying his levies.
2.     The essence of having a joined leadership is to channel our projects through a single ideology or belief. If we want to do something for the community, we should target a single project and accomplish it first before moving further. Joined leadership will ensure that there is national body supervising the activities of the association.
3.     Single project articulation simply called for ‘one project delivery at a time’. Example if we intend to build school, so our project for that year or years to come is ‘building school’. Lim traditional rulers are to encourage us by supporting us to effectively develop Lim.
There should be total abolition of idleness among our youths
Parents should do everything to unite their children and pass right message to them.
Lim branches should throwaway the differences and to avoid conflicting personal interest with the interest of the association. There should be standard body to regularise all activities or project for the community.
There is a need of our youths to participate in politics. This will help in carryout tangible project in the community.

 

     Conclusion 

    My brothers and sisters of Lim, you are not too small to discuss anything to create awareness in our dear community. Your contributions is important and can make difference. Our community Lim is in need of urgent intervention, it is time to throw away our selfish desires, greed, hatred, disunity, unpatriotic and idleness. Let us wakeup and find something to do. School is not compulsory, you can learn to speak even at home, just find something legal that will generate income for you. So that if they say let’s contribute for a particular project we will be able to cooperate and contribute financially. Let’s do away with those wrong and old beliefs of our forefathers so that we can build a better place for generations to come.