Healthy or Unhealthy; All Na Competition
By Evelyn Temny
All is fair in love and war, but will be fairer if you combine both love and war in your life. Everything you do will unquestionably be fair. So is the case of UI students and our passionate pursuit for academic success, as well as the competition to be lonely at the top as the Beegeehes; which is why we still retain the title ‘fess and bess’ even after so many years.
The Bible says, “For what profits a man that gains this world and loses his life?” and many UItes took it personal “what profits me if I help a fellow student or if I don’t make it more difficult than it should be for my competitors to succeed?”. Yorubas will say “Ki lere mi?” meaning “what is my gain?”.
What is my gain if I do not keep lecture materials to myself and in my benevolence share it far and wide a night to exams; the art of killing two birds with one stone, what is my gain? By doing so, not only do I make known my benevolence, I also create fear and anxiety in the minds of my competitors, kicking them off balance some hours to exam, they steer off course and lose their focus on those things that actually matter. Now tell me, why should I, and many other Uites like me, choose to forgo these pleasant advantages just to help our naive competitors?
What do I stand to gain if I share my note with you all because you were not in class for reasons best known to you? Or because you didn’t catch what the lecturer said? Is it my problem? As far as you are concerned, I don’t have a note. Do I look like an AI tool designed to take notes for you? It’s the audacity for me, the audacity of some people to even ask for my personal note, my brain child? Even the one that is impersonal, you cannot see. Do you really think I will will strengthen my opponent at my own peril.
You can call me a coward or whatever, but still I will not yield. Yes, I am afraid, I am very afraid; that if you have access to all I have you will probably do better than I will, hence, I will definitely protect myself, from you; my fear of the unknown. I cannot afford any threat to my path to attaining the BGS title.
The best way is to transfer that fear to you, by making you realise how far behind me you are just in time for you to start making preparations for exams. Oh! The bliss I feel, when I see my competitors show their gratitude for a material I had finished reading before the reign of Julius Caesar. I gloat as I watch you all scramble all around realising that you are far behind and I am far beyond. Of course, none of you will suspect me of being the cause of your misery, because I have the default excuse of; “Oh! I also just got it. I’m also struggling to catch up just like you”. Even though you know it is a lie, you cannot hold me down for it, you can only be grateful that I released it at all. You cannot be a beggar and be arrogant at the same time. You must accept whatever you are given in all humility.
A wise king prepares for the day of war. I must say, my fear has made me the epitome of wisdom, a white bearded fox. What leverage do I have over you if you have access to all the materials at the same time I had access to them? In fact, if I ever release any of the materials I’m privy to without giving you a condition not to share it with others, then pigs must have colonised the human race. As a wise fox that I am, I’d, of course, do something that will create initial artificial scarcity and slow down the speed of circulation, so as to spread the fear of being behind in the hearts of others. To that end, a threat not to release materials in future will do; evoking people’s selfish nature, my worthy disciples.
Before I can start sharing materials with you, you must satisfactorily beg me like you would a king that I am. After all, I am in control of your success and failure. All of you must bow to me. This is how I fight my battles, and this is how I win my battles. This is how I overcome my fear of not being at the top, this is how I overcome you. I might smile with you and laugh with you, however, you will only be assuming I’m your friend at your own peril. Who goes you?
You can try, but you cannot appeal to my conscience or morality, you only do that to things that exist. There is a reason why law and morality are not incorporated. My actions and manner of doing things are not illegal. Hence, you cannot blame me. Blame our lecturers, for not sharing their materials effectively; do you even know what I always go through to secure materials and relevant information. Call me toxic, you have the right to hold an opinion, but not the materials in my possession and control, over which I have established a firm monopoly.
An important hack that is essential for man to be conscious of early in life is that the general rule of life is ‘survival of the fittest’, if for nothing else but for his own survival and preservation. This is why life is unfair and ‘elemi lo ma last’, i.e,only the though ones last. There is no karma waiting for anybody around the corner; especially not me, just as the saying goes, life is not a Nollywood movie. Hence, all is indeed fair in love and war; any form of competition; healthy or unhealthy; na competition, and the winner takes it all.
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