The power of hope

The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for - Allan K. Chalmers.

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea - Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

One characteristic of black people worldwide, especially Nigerians, is that there's always hope somewhere at the back of their minds, even where there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
There's always abundance hope in Nigeria. 'E go better ' is the slogan. And whoever doesn't believe in that is perceived to be demon-possessed and heading towards destruction.
Amidst the 39 sitting 99 standing in the molue, hope is not missen in anyone that things will get better (if not with the nation in general, at least with them).
Amidst those who go through hook & crook means, impersonation (ori-olori), and the determination to get to any land where one can see white men living, the bottomline is that hope resides within them that things will get better and they'll come home one day to become Chiefs, Cash Madams, Owambe peeps et al.
From Chinedu whose father sold all his stock investments for him to travel out, who later couldn't get any better/easier thing to do than to be an Odu boy; Tamuno who's selling groceries in Yokohama; to Loretta from Benin who's in Spain trying to make a living; to Hamza who's packing snow this winter for money, hope is the oil that runs their locomotives.

And hope seems not to have diminished with those that are even at home & aren't successful in finding ways to checking out. A workmate recently narrated a scenario in which he saw a man (probably in his late 50s) went to a young lady who is a lottery agent and sat with her, keenly looking at what she was doing and handing what seems to be no small money over to her. He was PLAYING LOTTERY! His mien expressed statements like 'Better play this well, 'cos I gotta win this one or else all hell will let loose'.
The lottery is fast gaining grounds after the seeming demise of the 'POOL' famous with elderly men because they hardly win.
The pool has now been so modernised that it's called lottery and the draws are even aired on national TV and local stations, some even use mobile phones for playing them.
There are three lottery services with various inspiring tags:
1. National Lottery - Levels go change o
2. Lagos State Lottery - E fit be you o
3. Baba Ijebu - Dapada!

Of all the three lotteries mentioned above, none is as popular, widely accepted and lucrative in Lagos as much as Baba Ijebu. Levels go change o and E fit be you o were tags chosen by their operators. But Dapada! (return it) wasn't picked by the operators of Baba Ijebu (headed by one Chief Kessington), it was christened by locals because of the generous way it blesses those that play it. I can confidently inform you that the volume of transaction of Baba Ijebu is more than 100 million a day (it aint a dream, it's reality).
While others are using sophisticated equipments to run and even have websites, Baba Ijebu is simply local and doesn't require much to run his business. And people are winning LIKE HELL!!
My aunt told me she once saw her friend at a Baba Ijebu kiosk playing lottery who urged her to come and play. Her friend played with N2000! Talk about hope.
If you win, Baba Ijebu doesn't give cheques or redeemable instruments but raw cash, even if it's 4 million. Even the IFAs & WC in Etomi blog are gradually taking to it.

All these are happening when people are finding it hard to get three square meals. Many would rather have two and use money for the third to play Baba Ijebu if he would Dapada!
In a civilized and normal world, lottery is meant to be played with small money. But due to poverty which begets the strong belief in hope and a better tomorrow, many (like that man) prefer to invest heavily in lottery 'cos the money sef no reach do all the things you want do. He that is down needs fear no fall.
HELP!!! Some people are using their dry breads to scoop our soup.

****I've got a business proposal for we bloggers; why not let's put money together to organise another Baba Ijebu kinda lottery in Lagos? The return on investment (ROI) is more than 100% in 6 months. The stats? There are more than 15 million people in Lagos. Furthermore, as long as the Nigerian blood runs in the veins of people residing in Lagos, we'll always make money from them. It's what I call the power of hope.*******