By ‘Tunde Ogunmola_
I have a tenacious belief that life is a puzzle, and inherently unpredictable. Life’s unpredictability transcends humans’ understanding from generation to generation.
Although, a great philosopher Aristotle, says there is Law of Cause and Effect. For him, for every effect in man’s life, there are specific causes. He says things don’t just happen. Everything, according to him, happens for a reason. He opined that, neither success nor failure is an accident, what happens to man is neither determined by luck nor coincidence.
Much as I strongly understand and believe in the Law of Cause and Effect, in fact, I always tell whoever cares to listen that, I have come to a point in my life that I have resolved to not regret any of my actions or inactions because everything happens for a reason, whether good or bad. This, no doubt, concretized my staunch belief in the Law of Cause and Effect. But many a times, certain things do happen inexplicably. Things happen some other times with no link to Law of Cause and Effect. Where do we situate that?
That’s simply pre-determinism or divine determinism, at play. According to Google, “Predeterminism and divine determinism are closely related concepts, but not quite the same. Predeterminism generally refers to the idea that all events, including human actions, are predetermined or destined to happen. Divine determinism, on the other hand, specifically attributes this predetermination to a divine being, such as God.”
Whichever ways you intend to look at it, Aristotle and other philosophers who say for every effect there’s a cause, and the doctrine of pre-determinism and divine determinism are inextricably intertwined.
But in my own estimation, the latter is of great effect in life situations than the former. Pre-determinism and divine determinism are not only very pronounced, they’re part of major determinants in life. Yorubas will philosophically say, “Ori lo mo ibi to n gbe ese re”, this literally means only the head can tell where it’s taking the leg.
Head and legs in this sentence are used metaphorically. It doesn’t mean head and leg in the true sense of the words. Head, in Yoruba cosmology refers to “eleda” which means creator or God, leg, on the other hand, refers to human being in soul. Yoruba uses the word Ori, that is, head and eleda, that is, creator interchangeably to mean creator/God.
Hence, the Yoruba maxim of “Ori lo mo ibi to n gbe ese re” means only creator/God knows where someone is headed.
Invariably, someone’s Ori is the source of their life choices and the trajectory of their destiny.
This Yoruba maxim lends credence to pre-determinism and divine determinism.
Let me not bombard you with textbook examples or instances of pre-determinism and divine determinism in life situations. Look around you to equate and situate it accordingly.
Closely related to pre-determinism and divine determinism is what is called a life pattern. Life pattern literally means person’s daily life routines, occurrence, habit and behaviour.
But in this context, the life pattern I am referring to isn’t the one defined above. I’m talking about what either works or doesn’t work for you as an individual. Each of us is uniquely created by God. Just like our fingerprints are unique to us so also are our life patterns.
Everyone has a life pattern, life pattern is what repeatedly works for you or doesn’t work for you in life. It’s what is uniquely and exclusively yours. Our life pattern isn’t our own making, it’s naturally with us, just like our palm lines otherwise known as palmar flexion creases that had been with us since birth. As Yoruba adage said, ‘Atewo mo ba la mi o mo eni to ko’, meaning No one knows the writer of palm lines.
Some people’s life pattern might be getting unsolicited favour, appointment, promotion or elevation, whereas any time these set of people make a move to get favour, appointment or elevation, or take any active steps to get anything, they will not get it. While some other people will have to make efforts, take active steps before they can achieve or get anything. That’s what life pattern does.
For instance, it’s been circumstantiated that every position Chief Olusegun Obasanjo held, from military head of state to president, he never lobbied or go all out for it. He assumed those exalted positions rather unsolicited.
Historically, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo became Nigeria’s Head of State in 1976 as a result of the gruesome killing of his boss, General Muritala Muhammed. Chief Obasanjo served as second-in-command to General Muritala Muhammed but the assassination of the latter paved the way for his emergence as the head of state. Secondly, Obasanjo reportedly became Nigeria’s president in 1999 as parts of the moves made by some Northern political bigwigs to assuage the Southwest over grievance arising from the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election reportedly won by late Chief M.K.O Abiola. They allegedly went to him, drafted him, and reportedly picked him to become the number one citizen of the country without him requesting for it.
Like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, everyone has something about him such that God blesses him with in a particular way. There are people that can only get something when they work hard for it. And there are those who just get it on a platter of gold. One has to understand what is life pattern is and consistently stick to it.
As for pre-determinism and divine determinism, I am not advocating or fanning the ember of idleness or sitting idly by in the name of divine determinism or pre-determinism. As human body systems – digestive, respiratory, reproductive etc are wired to function so also human beings are intrinsically engineered to work for something, take the initiative, and make moves.
But whatever initiative we take, we should have it at the back of our minds that, “Kadara ase, adura agba, igbiyanju oni gbele sugbon ti Oluwa ni o se.” Meaning, destiny shall come to pass, prayers will be answered, efforts will not be in vain but God has the final say! Tunde Ogunmola is the publisher of naijanewsdirect, a Lagos-based online newspaper
